Archive for the 'Patty Griffin' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Patty Griffin: After dabbling in gospel and touring with singing partner Robert Plant's Band of Joy, Griffin will release her first album of largely original material in six years and her seventh studio album overall, "American Kid," dropping May 7.

Southern Californians will have to wait patiently to witness the material's live fruition, however, as the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter's tour, which launches May 30 in North Carolina, won't arrive until it's practically over: June 25 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. Tickets, priced $25-$50, go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Griffin's gig is top-tier among a handful of shows at the historic art-deco theater also available Friday at 10 a.m.: British rock group Foals headlines August 9, with Cayucas and Drowners opening, $25; breakout Cincinnati-based indie outfit Walk the Moon returns October 18, $25 (after headlining Santa Ana's Observatory two days earlier for $17.50); and children's entertainment group the Wiggles lands there Sept. 8 for two daytime performances at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., $15-$75.

All set at the MusicCares salute to Springsteen earlier this month in Los Angeles. Photo: Getty Images

The first thing you’ll notice about Natalie Maines’ solo debut, which doesn’t come out until May 7, may not be how much it rocks, although it does that heartily, nor how startling it is to hear her wail again, seeing as it’s been more than a half-dozen years since she has with any frequency.

Rather, as befits a disc named after Pink Floyd’s Orwellian ballad “Mother,” it’s the cover songs that might grab and grip you. Several are included in the 10-track collection – they fill up the first half.

Though Maines is an accomplished and often starkly honest songwriter, this coming set (from her longtime label Columbia Records) hasn’t emerged from a need to express herself lyrically so much as a desire to further shed any remnants of the stifling country mold the Dixie Chicks shattered with their brave and brilliant Grammy winner "Taking the Long Way" (2006).

Usually we don't concern ourselves very much with television scheduling. But Austin City Limits, arguably the finest and definitely America's longest-running live music program going, is an exception to every rule.

Especially when Radiohead has been tapped for the next fall launch.

The 38th season of the PBS series gets underway Oct. 6 with an hour from the influential Brits in their debut appearance on the show, recorded at the Moody Theater in downtown Austin (site for most ACL tapings) all the way back in March, just before the annual SXSW conference invaded.

Several other leading lights from the indie scene are on deck this season, including Bon Iver on Oct. 13 and the Shins with Dr. Dog on Oct. 27.

First little brother Nick launched a solo career with his band the Administration. Now it's middle bro Joe's turn.

Joe Jonas, who turned 22 on Monday, is stepping away from Jonas Brothers for his solo debut - FastLife, due Oct. 11 from Hollywood Records - and is preparing to embark on a tour to promote it alongside co-headliner Jay Sean, the Brit singer/rapper whose fourth album, Freeze Time, is expected Nov. 22 from Cash Money/Universal Republic.

The pairing will play Sept. 20 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles - the same place Nick headlined on his solo jaunt. Prices: $35-$65. Joe also comes to Pomona for a show without Jay Sean on Sept. 21 at the Fox Theater, $25-$30. Both gigs go on sale Friday, Aug. 19, at 10 a.m.

"I've been working hard to put together a show that my fans are going to love," Jonas said in a statement. "There are some real surprises in store so people coming out to these shows are going to see a different side of me. I really can't wait to get back out there and see all those familiar faces again.”

So Emmylou Harris is opening for Don Henley at Santa Barbara Bowl on Sept. 24, but not when he plays the Greek Theatre on Sept. 17. This could be why: the country/folk icon and her Red Dirt Boys have their own headlining appearance at the L.A. amphitheater slated for Sept. 27, with Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller opening. Tickets, $35-$65, are on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

The question -- will the three surviving Zeppelin members join forces for any substantial project? -- was answered emphatically by Robert Plant at his gig Saturday night at the Greek Theatre, a regular performance destination of his (with or without Alison Krauss) for the past decade. Clearly the singer is getting too much satisfaction from what he's doing now to change the road he's on.

Plant's sound these days is sort of a hybrid of what he did with his Strange Sensation band and tour a few years ago combined with his more-recent Grammy-winning work with Krauss. His Band of Joy project -- that's the name of his band, latest album (from September) and current, two-years-running tour -- combines the progressive psychedelia of Strange Sensation with the Americana folk of his Raising Sand collaboration to produce something different from what Plant has ever done before.

That's what is obviously driving his ambition: the quest for something fresh and challenging. That would not be happening for him if he agreed to climb aboard a Zeppelin tour that would be wildly popular and lucrative but perhaps not as personally satisfying. He doesn't need the money, thanks to late Zeppelin manager Peter Grant's wise counsel. He needs to be challenged.

And Plant is getting that push nightly from Band of Joy members Marco Giovino on percussion, bassist Byron House, multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott, vocalist Patty Griffin (an acclaimed singer-songwriter in her own right) and guitarist Buddy Miller (ditto, and also co-producer of Band of Joy with Plant).

August 20th, 2010, 1:03 pm by GEORGE A. PAUL, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It's all about the songs. Good ones can survive being adapted to fit any arrangement in any genre. John Hiatt should know -- since starting a music career in the mid-'70s, more than a hundred artists have covered his compositions.

The list is eclectic, including Keith Urban, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton & B.B. King, Jewel, Buddy Guy, Don Henley, the Neville Brothers, Iggy Pop, Linda Ronstadt, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson and Paula Abdul, among others. Part of the appeal lies in Hiatt's knack for penning tunes with nuanced melodies, keen details and sardonic humor. Bonnie Raitt -- who famously remade “Thing Called Love” for her Grammy-winning, multiplatinum album Nick of Time in 1989 -- has said Hiatt's allure stems from a “real skewed view of human emotions, love and the world.”

Not to mention exceptional guitar playing. Indeed, though quite a few inventive axe-slingers have appeared on Hiatt albums and tours (David Lindley, Ry Cooder, Sonny Landreth), the man himself can definitely hold his own on the old electric, too.

While the Indiana-bred roots-rocker's sales haven't matched those of the famous clients above, a stellar, acclaimed late '80s/early '90s trilogy (Bring the Family, Slow Turning, Stolen Moments) and the alt-rock leaning Perfectly Good Guitar (from 1993, his biggest seller at nearly a half-million copies) helped raise his public profile.

Hiatt snagged a Grammy nod for the stark, acoustic 2000 release Crossing Muddy Waters and continues to put out solid efforts that touch upon blues, folk and rock 'n' roll. Burned out by a quarter-century of steady touring, the musician took a break and recently unveiled The Open Road, featuring timeless songs that revolve around compelling characters on the go.

Back in the day, before my babble became Web-first and I still cared what landed in the newspaper, I used to write a little column called Pop Life. And it goes a little something like this ...

My good man the Amateur Chemist is certain to shoot me in the leg with a brain-flattening dose of Thorazine for even mentioning this. I feel like a traitorous friend having written just this much.

See, he's the one who tipped me off to the Belly Up, Solana Beach's best-kept secret, and now that I've spent two very happy evenings there seeing superb and/or sublime performances, I understand why he's been mum about it for so long: I kinda don't want anyone else to know about it either. Such an unpretentiously cool place should be kept amongst friends.

Plus, much as I'm sure the venue's owners would welcome any and all business, I'm also sure concert-going San Diegans who for years have been regular frequenters of the tucked-away tavern wouldn't be pleased to greet an influx of interloping Orange County snoots.

But duty beckons. I can't keep taking drives down the 5 and not tell you why.

Two weeks ago critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Patty Griffin issued Downtown Church, her first album in three years, a collection of gospel-infused tunes recorded at the same-named Presbyterian house of worship in Nashville.

Now the 45-year-old Americana torchbearer (right) has announced one of her biggest SoCal performances, April 10 at the Wiltern. Buddy Miller, who produced Griffin's new album and has a noteworthy discography himself (with and without wife Julie), will open ... and presumably join in during Patty's set. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. exclusively at LiveNation.com.

Also at the Wiltern and on sale via that site: Tears for Fears, who will support a reunited Spandau Ballet on a Down Under tour in April, will play the venue March 21, with Wainwright (just Wainwright, not Rufus or Martha or Loudon) opening ... and that previously mentioned gig from the National, May 21. Both of those go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

We already knew that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC to you and me) would play three shows (March 11-12 and 14) at the Echoplex in L.A., not long after releasing its fifth album, Beat the Devil's Tattoo, on March 8. Now the group has added a March 16 stop at House of Blues Anaheim, in addition to a March 13 show at House of Blues San Diego. Tickets are $17.50-$40.